Cirrus@Austlit

The uncompromising and perceptive autobiography of Barbara Blackman, poet, blind woman, wife and mother. The wife of Charles Blackman and friend of Joy Hester recounts her life amid a generation of artists and free spirits revealing herself to be a woman of wisdom, humour and strength.

(Source: Trove)

Biography of Darby McCarthy, an Aboriginal man from Cunnamulla, described by Johnny Tapp as one of the top five Australian jockeys to have ever ridden.

'The biography of the man who, for over twenty-five years, was arguably Australia's most significant public servant, serving every prime minister, Liberal and Labor, from Ben Chifley to Malcolm Fraser. Tange defined Australian foreign affairs and defence policy for over 25 years and this sheds new light on many of Australia's political crises including the downfall of John Gorton as PM, the fault line in Australian-US relationships during the Whitlam government and the deaths of the Balibo Five in East Timor.

'In Leave to Remain: A Memoir, Abbas El-Zein tells his story of growing up in a middleclass family in civil-war Beirut, a city in the throes of self-destruction, yet obstinately clinging to its cosmopolitan past. El-Zein traces the genesis of a contemporary Middle-Eastern identity - his own - under the influence of culture, religion, history and places far removed from where he grew up: Najaf and Baghdad, Paris, Palestine, London, Sydney and the American far west. With him we travel through a Middle-Eastern life, with an eye on the mundane and the everyday, as well as the cataclysmic events overshadowing them.

'Mem’s the Word is the candid and compelling autobiography of Australia’s most successful children’s author. It begins with Mem’s ancestors settling in Australia and follows her childhood in Africa, her education in Europe, her return to Australia and the trials and successes of her international career as a writer, storyteller and teacher. It unfolds as an endlessly generous reminiscence, full of truth and humour, self-awareness and insight, and the secrets of a writer’s life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Ligature ed.

'Gwen Foster wrote these letters to Lietutenant Thomas (Tony) Riddell when she was working at the War Damage Commission in Brisbane. She married Bill Harwood and became a celebrated poet (who dedicated all her books to Riddell).'

Source: Abebooks.

'In this reasoned reconstruction, the exploits of the notorious cannibal-convict, Alexander Pearce, the Man-Eater of Macquarie Harbour and prototype for Marcus Clarke's Gabbett, are traced from his (partly unpublished) confessions to the penal authorities and by exhaustive reference to contemporary records of all kinds. Pearce's two escapes from the hated penal settlement in 1822 and 1823, the fate of his companions, his successful crossing of the mountains and adventures whilst ranging the bush are reconstructed.

'Streeton's letters express his interests and anxieties about his work, show his development from a romantic youth to a weary old man, and provide an insight into Australian society and the art community from the 1890s to the 1940s.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Mary Cameron was self-confident, an aspirant writer and feminist - but she also took with her white muslin for a wedding dress; and she married a near illiterate shearer William Gilmore. Their socialist dream foundered before very long and they had to earn their passage home with their baby son - through the impossibly remote country communities of Paraguay and the vast estancias of Argentina to Patagonia, the 'end of the earth' made famous by Darwin and Bruce Chatwin. Anne Whitehead brilliantly counterpoints her own wanderings with Mary's.